Portfolio Insights:“Arizona State University (ASU or University) is the largest public university in the United States under a single administration. It has the critical mass and quality to effect much-needed change in American higher education. ASU has established itself as the model for a New American University, measured not by who it excludes, but rather by who it includes and how they succeed; pursuing research and discovery that benefits the public good; and assuming major responsibility for the economic, social and cultural vitality and health and well-being of the community.

The mission of the ASU Foundation for A New American University (Foundation) is simple and direct: to ensure the success of ASU as a New American University. The Foundation does this by uniting the university and the community as a force for positive change. The Foundation’s revolutionary model of donor relations identifies each investor’s passion, then facilitates a sustainable affiliation between the investor and the ASU college or institute that shares that passion.” (Source)

1) The Arizona State University Foundation’s mission is to ensure the success of Arizona State University as a “New American University.” This project, “Combating Criminal Involvement in Nuclear Trafficking,” will analyze past, present, and potential future roles of non-ideological criminals (including corrupt officials) in trafficking of nuclear material and of dual-use nuclear equipment and technology and will develop and disseminate multifaceted and specific recommendations for how to deter, detect, and disrupt their involvement. Funds will be used for principal investigator, consultant and graduate assistant salaries and fringe benefits, support for a workshop and dissemination of results. (Source)

2) Johnnie Ray, president and chief executive officer of the Arizona State University Foundation, will be recommended as the next vice president for development and alumni affairs at the University of Tennessee. UT President Joe DiPietro will recommend Ray for election by the Board of Trustees, he announced today. The board will formally take up the election at its fall meeting Oct. 27-28.

The vice president for development and alumni affairs serves as the University’s chief development officer and provides leadership, planning, coordination and management of development and alumni affairs programs for the entire multi-campus university system. The vice president also serves as president of the University of Tennessee Foundation, Inc. (Source)

3) The Arizona State University Foundation will start a new venture capital fund for early-stage companies focused on manufacturing, thanks to a $1 million grant from the Maricopa County Industrial Development Authority. The venture capital fund will benefit ASU’s accelerator programs based at ASU’s SkySong center in Scottsdale, including the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Group and ASU’s technology transfer arm, Arizona Technology Enterprises.

“We feel this new venture fund will help to fill a gap not only in the early-stage venture sector in Arizona, but also in the ecosystem that is rapidly building in the greater Phoenix area for manufacturing-oriented companies,” Gordon McConnell, associate vice president with the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Group, said in an email. “In ASU SkySong, we have noticed an increase in the past few years in startups that are aiming to build physical products, including those in our student startups programs, as well as with faculty and alumni.” (Source)

4) Arizona State University Foundation announced today the hiring of Jeff Schemmel, Senior Associate Athletics Director for University of Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletics, as Executive Director of Development for ASU and the Senior Vice President of the ASU Foundation. At ASU, Schemmel will be responsible for leading and managing all college-based development efforts, in addition to university-wide programs such as planned giving, relations with private foundations and special annual giving programs.

“The decision to leave Minnesota and all our friends, both inside and outside the university, was not an easy one,” Schemmel said “You don’t spend 12 years at a place like this without forever taking with you the strong ties and great memories. This opportunity at ASU is simply too good for my family and I to pass up. (Source)

5) In 2012, the Arizona State University Foundation invested more than $78 million, or 13.5%, of its $579 million total investments in hedge funds. These assets which help close gaps between state funding and tuition, costs for research, the operating expenses associated with libraries, student services and athletic facilities. (Source)

About Richard C. Wilson

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